These are marking grids for formally assessed pieces of writing. When students draft their writing, they glue this grid into their book and aim to include all of the features in the grid. If they’ve included it, they tick the grid and underline where that feature is in their work. When I mark their work, I traffic light the features according to whether those features are present in their work and if they’re correctly written. Students are really enthusiastic about these and it’s a wonderful way for them to take ownership of their work. They can clearly see what is expected from them and it is great incentive to improve their writing. I’ve included a comment box for anything they may need to improve or anything they’ve included that wasn’t asked for but it good. There is also a grading box to show the student the current level of their work. The PPT slide fully explains how the grids work in a way students can understand. I have also included a PPT for a narrative flashback so you can see how this resource can be used in context. This does require some ‘training’ for the children to use them but once they are familiar with them, they are invaluable.

This resource was used with a year 6 English class. The focus was discussing word classes and using words that can belong to two different word classes such as ‘duck’. The students then had to use that word in a sentence depending on the word class specified. The class found it both useful and challenging. Very little printing required. SATs questions provided as a plenary/extension.

PPT and description cards for descriptive vocabulary lesson. Aim of the lesson is for children to up-level their description of characters. Children read the vocabulary statements and match the description to a Mr Men character. Each sentence should match to one of the four characters. I printed and cut the statements, placing them into envelopes for extra ‘fun’. Discuss in a group any vocabulary they don’t understand (use a dictionary where needed and discuss as a class). Once the descriptions are matched to the characters, the children then write their own character description for a Mr Men character of their choice. Character descriptions contain very high vocabulary and punctuation. This would be more suitable for UKS2 and KS3 students. This lesson has been previously used with KS1 and LKS2 also for intervention/guided reading sessions. Students thoroughly enjoy the session.

This powerpoint has comprehension questions by chapter for Street Child. The questions are written in SAT style wording to help prepare children for SAT language. Questions are organised by question type (inference, prediction, vocabulary… I1, I2, P1, P2, etc.) and have a number of marks allocated per question. The majority of chapters have questions and answers as well as extensions and opportunities for cross-curricular writing.